


The Shadow

by Sulwen



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze, Glam Rock RPF
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-06
Updated: 2011-07-06
Packaged: 2017-10-21 02:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sulwen/pseuds/Sulwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not a deathfic.  Not really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this sometime last fall - somehow, it got missed when I crossposted my fics here from LJ.

He appears only in the dark moments, and only in Adam's mind.

Or so Adam's thought. Until tonight.

Adam's alone, really alone, for the first time in a long time. He keeps a place outside the city, a quiet, secluded place, for writing music in, for bringing lovers to. But tonight, he has neither music nor sex on his mind. He's not sure what's possessed him, what's driven him from a deep, dreamless sleep to the car and the dark road, what's brought him here, and he's careful not to examine it too close, this strange urge for solitude, for distance. There's something under the surface, lurking just out of sight, and Adam doesn't really want to see.

He sits on the sofa and stares into the dead, black screen of the TV on the wall, uncomfortable with this mood and reveling in it all at once, this deep restlessness that goes to his very core, makes him crave...something, something without a name.

Adam's hardly surprised at all when the face appears in the depths of the TV screen, strange and angular and _cold,_ somehow, and very very beautiful.

It's only when he turns around and finds the man standing right there in his living room that the fear begins to creep in.

It takes a long moment to remember how to speak, and when he does, his voice sounds unfamiliar to his own ears.

“Who are you? How did you get in?” he asks, but there's no conviction to the words, the questions coming only because they seem like what should be said in situations like this. But Adam doesn't fool himself for a minute. There _are_ no situations like this.

The man looks at him with eyes both dark and bright, and Adam feels his breath catch in his throat, his heart miss a beat.

“You know who I am.”

The voice is low and seductive, and it sends a cold shiver all through Adam's body. His eyes grow heavy, his mind sluggish, as if he's tired – but it's more intense than that, what he imagines hypnosis might feel like. He shakes his head, blinks quickly, forces himself to be awake, be aware. _Think._

“Yes. No. I don't know. I've...I think I've seen you before.”

The man is unbelievably pale, with blond hair that falls to his shoulders and a thin-lipped mouth filled with too many teeth. Those teeth flash at him as the man speaks, always the hint of a smirk on his lips.

“You have been under my watch for many years. And yes, I have made myself known a time or two. When you have been in the right mind for it.”

Adam shakes his head again. “If...if this is real...if I'm not dreaming right now...I think this about as far away from my right mind as I've ever been.”

The man laughs darkly. “You think so, do you? But no, you're wrong, quite wrong. Nor are you alone. You all see me, in the end.”

“The end.” Adam feels his mouth go dry, and swallows hard, painfully. “You mean...”

The perfect arch of an eyebrow. “I am known by many names, Adam, but yes, one of them is Death.”

A pale hand reaches out to him, beckoning fingers bare but for one ring, a dark gem set in silver, large enough that Adam can see his reflection in it. He regards the hand carefully, and is surprised to feel not fear, but curiosity rising within him.

“If I touch you...does that mean...?”

The man laughs again. “It takes more than a touch, Adam. The breath of life is held between your lips, and only a kiss can take it from you.”

“A kiss.”

“Yes.”

Adam feels his lips curling into a smirk of his own, and he lowers his head a bit, looking out through slanted eyes. “Not such a bad way to go.”

And at that, the man comes closer, a smooth elegant movement that ends with him hovering behind Adam, one arm coming around to cross over his chest, heavy and possessive. He leans in close to Adam's ear, easily tall enough to make Adam feel almost small.

“It burns so hot within you...” the man murmurs, and his voice sounds like lust and greed and envy all at once.

Adam closes his eyes and leans back into the embrace. “What does?”

“Desire. For freedom. For love. For _life.”_ The man goes quiet for a long moment before speaking again. “You remind me of someone...someone I knew a long while ago, in another age.”

“And what happened to them?” They're rocking back and forth ever so slightly, and Adam feels like he's floating, or sinking, or drowning.

“She...she's gone now. Death, it seems, was not enough for her.”

At that, the man seems to grow angry, and he takes Adam by the shoulders, whirls him around until they're face to face. Mere inches separate them, close enough that Adam should be able to feel breath on his lips...were the man breathing. His own breath comes quicker, puffing out in a hot gasping rush, and he can't think, can't remember what's wrong about this, only that he _wants._ The man glances down at his lips, something dark and powerful flaring in his piercing eyes, and then brings his intense gaze back up to meet Adam's own.

“No. Not this night. There is a span of years yet between us that even Death cannot cross.”

Adam feels a wave of relief go through him, but it's tinged – quite strongly – with disappointment, and the man must be able to see it in his eyes, because his arms draw Adam closer and one hand grips Adam's hair, pulling his head back, baring his throat.

“And yet. I am not so cruel as to leave you with nothing.”

The drag of his tongue across the taut skin of Adam's neck is like nothing Adam has ever felt, cold and electric and consuming, and he can't stop his mouth falling open, a desperate whine escaping him with each shallow breath. He arcs into the hard form pressed against him, overpowered, completely lost, giving himself up to sensation.

Abruptly, the man releases him and steps away, putting a good distance between them and leaving Adam unsteady on his feet and even more off-balance in his head. He gives a slight nod, and suddenly Adam's terrified of nothing more than being left like this, with not a word of goodbye.

“Wait...”

“I must go. I have stayed too long already.”

“But...”

The man cocks his head and smiles at Adam, and for the first time, it's not a smirk, not a carefully calculated flash of eyes and teeth. Something falls away from his face, something that Adam can't see, only sense, and he looks almost...not quite, but almost... _human._

“Here.” Bringing his hands up, the man works the ring off his finger and offers it to Adam.

Adam lets it fall into his outstretched hand and looks down to fit it onto his own finger. When he looks up again, he's alone. The man is gone.

Most of the time, Adam doesn't think about it at all. But very rarely, a strange mood comes over him, and he runs his fingers over a large, dark gem, and thinks about piercing eyes and a different kind of freedom.


End file.
